Aluminum foil is probably one of the most popular items used in the kitchen, especially for baking and wrapping food. But, this versatile product is also a good addition to your survival kit as it has a lot of uses when you’re outdoors.

7 Aluminum Foil Uses When You’re Out In The Wild

Being a wilderness aficionado, you need to be resourceful and learn how to maximize the use of an item by repurposing it. There are several ways you can repurpose a simple household item such as an aluminum foil and use it for your survival when you’re outdoors. Let me share with you these 7 ways you can use aluminum foil while you’re exploring outdoors. Scroll on!

1. Shelter Insulator

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To keep the heat in your survival shelter, you can use aluminum foil as an insulator. Put an aluminum foil lining inside your shelter to keep you warm when you’re outdoors. You can also do this in your sleeping bag. Simply put a heavy-duty aluminum foil under it, this will also protect your sleeping bag against moisture.

2. Electricity Conductor

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When your flashlight goes off in the night and the spring in the battery container becomes loose, you can replace it with an aluminum foil. Just make a substitute as wide and thick as the spring and the aluminum foil will act as the electrical conductor.

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At camp nights, sometimes your flashlight isn’t bright enough for you to see in the dark. To brighten up your lights, you can use aluminum foil to intensify the light. Try attaching the shiny side of the aluminum foil to your source of light to improve its brightness.

4. Instant Plate

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When you’ve run out of paper plates while you’re outdoors, aluminum foil can serve as your substitute plate. Just fold it into a form of a plate and voila, you’re good to eat! It could also be easily disposed after usage or you can clean it up and reuse it for later.

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When the rain starts to pour, you can use aluminum foil to wrap up your things to prevent them from getting wet. Prioritize the things that can get broken or you can’t afford getting soaked like electrical gadgets and matches. You must remember though that this would not make your things waterproof but it will definitely lessen the risk of getting wet.

6. Fishing Lure

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Because of the reflective property of the aluminum foil, it can attract the fishes in the water. Use a little piece of aluminum foil as your fishing lure. Shape the aluminum foil like a small baitfish then attach it to your fishing hook.

7. Sharpen Blade

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If you want to sharpen a dull pair of scissors, you can rub its blades in a thick piece of aluminum foil against both sides of the blade for about two to three minutes. After doing so, you can now use your scissors easily. You can also do this trick with other blades like your survival knife but you’ll be needing a thicker aluminum foil. Make sure to be extra careful as you might cut yourself.

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Watch this video to learn how to boil water using aluminum foil:

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These are just some of the survival uses of aluminum foil that my friends I tried while camping outdoors, but I’ve heard there are a lot more uses it offers. If you’re about to head out for an adventure, you might want to pack some aluminum foil in your bug out bag. Who knows, you might be needing these hacks when you’re out in the wild.

What other aluminum foil hacks do you know? Have you tried any of these hacks before?

Thanks to wildfires, hurricanes, and certain leaders trading threats of nuclear annihilation over Twitter, you’ve probably been thinking a lot about disasters recently — specifically how not to perish in one.

And if you live in a city, this kind of thinking can be extra fraught. It’s easy enough for doomsday preppers living in the woods to head for bunkers filled with canned food, but how are you supposed to get out of dodge when you don’t even own a car?

Fortunately, or perhaps unfortunately, there are no realistic scenarios that would require a sudden, mass evacuation of an entire city.

Nuclear attack? I hate to break it to you, but nuclear-tipped ICBMs travel far too quickly to give anyone time to flee before all are incinerated in hellfire. Dirty bomb? Conventional explosives combined with radioactive material would not release enough radiation to kill anyone or cause severe illness.

Even most natural disasters wouldn’t require a sudden evacuation. Hurricanes are slow-moving and their paths can be predicted while earthquakes happen without warning.

“A lot of what drives big evacuations is often mass hysteria,” said John Renne, director of the Center for Urban and Environmental Solutions at Florida Atlantic University.

So while you may not need to head for the hills when disaster strikes, you still need to be prepared. The key is to think more realistically about disasters, evacuation plans, and what you actually need to stock up on (fewer nail-studded bats, more bottled water).

Here are a few things city slickers should consider to realistically prepare for a sudden disaster:

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1. Plan on staying put …

“There are really not a lot of scenarios where you would want to evacuate a whole city,” Renne said. “Panic leads people to want to evacuate, but that may not necessarily be the best thing to do.”

During some types of disasters — a chemical attack, for instance — it’s safer to shelter inside rather than evacuate. Even during the largest terrorist attack in history — Sept. 11 — only a small section of New York City needed to be evacuated.

“Most typically you would evacuate the parts of a city that are being impacted to a different part of the city,” explained Renne.

2. … But be ready to go at a moment’s notice.

Most people won’t need to evacuate, but if you happen to be in the area that is directly affected, you’ll need to be prepared to leave quickly.

The fires that scorched California’s Napa Valley swept through residential areas so rapidly that in many cases people only had a few minutes to evacuate. Hesitation proved lethal, and many victims died because they didn’t hear the initial warnings.

To avoid getting caught flat-footed, listen carefully to any emergency alerts from local news stations and monitor social media for developments on evacuation orders. They could come at any time.

3. Stock up on the right supplies.

If you plan on riding out a disaster in your apartment, you will need to have a lot more on hand than just Netflix and a case of wine. At a bare minimum, you should stock enough water and non-perishable food to last three days.

It’s also a good idea to have a basic emergency kit with a flashlight, batteries, first aid, and a solar charger to keep your smartphone humming. But if cell service goes down or the lines get overcrowded, having a hand-crank radio will be critical for receiving emergency updates.

And in case you do need to evacuate your neighborhood, you should have your “go-bags” already packed with important documents, non-perishable food, water, and medication. It’s also a good idea to include a flashlight, some extra batteries, chargers, some cash, and basic toiletries.

While it may be tempting to cram as much food and water into your bag as possible, you shouldn’t carry more than 20-25 pounds of gear. Unless you’ve got a fancy hiking pack that’s designed to carry heavy loads safely, stuffing more than 20 pounds in a regular backpack will put a lot of strain on your body and make it hard to move quickly.

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4. Know your surroundings.

Whether you’re fleeing or staying put, you really need to know the ins and outs of your home and neighborhood.

For instance, depending on the type of emergency you’re in, you may need to shut off your gas, electricity, or water in your house or apartment. So figure out in advance where these controls are and how to access them. The last thing you want is to accidentally set off a gas explosion when you light a match.

And if you do have to evacuate your home, it helps to already have an escape route planned out. Bear in mind that exits can become blocked, so having an alternate is critical.

You’ll also want to figure out the location of your local evacuation center and how you’d get there. Cities with good emergency plans might even have fleets of buses ready to ferry people there, but you don’t want to count on it.

Lastly, if you do have to escape, please be sure to check in on elderly, very young, or disabled neighbors to make sure they have options to get to safety as well.

5. Relax.

More than a New Age mantra, a positive attitude is the key to surviving an emergency. Nearly every outdoor survival guide begins with maintaining a positive attitude, keeping calm, and not letting anxiety or negativity infect your thoughts.

Hopelessness is a dangerous feeling when under extreme duress. Only by maintaining a positive outlook will you be able to maintain the willpower to survive.

You might be drinking toilet water, but at least you’re doing it from home

Tell someone where you will be hunting and when you will be returning.Know the weather conditions in your hunting area and dress accordingly.In an emergency, stay calm and stay put.Avoid hypothermia. Know how to treat it if it strikes.Keep rested, hydrated and well nourished.Carry a survival kit and a small first aid kit with you at all times.Know how to build a fire in all weather conditions and carry the supplies to start one.Carry a map and compass or GPS unit and know how to use them.

BUFFALO — The Wyoming Game and Fish Department hosted its “Becoming an Outdoor Woman” Workshop this weekend at Camp Roberts, north of Buffalo, WY.

Three women from Rock Springs were picked in a random drawing to attend: Eva Wasseen, Linda Kot and Susan Nichols.

Green River Information and Education Specialist Lucy Diggins-Wold, from Wyoming Game and Fish, taught outdoor survival. She caught a photo of two of the women, Eva Wasseen (photo right) and Linda Kot (photo left), during their Dutch oven cooking class.

Women from all over Wyoming, and all skill levels, learned to fly fish, shoot firearms, basic big game hunting techniques, outdoor survival, mountain biking and canoeing.

This Simple Tip Will Keep Ticks Off Of You All Summer Long

When winter is coming to a close and we are getting ready for the warmer weather, many of us look forward to heading outdoors and enjoying some sunshine. There are many reasons to go outside and it certainly can be a wonderful time of year. Unfortunately, it is also the time of year when we need to be cautious about getting ticks. It can really ruin the day.

If you are somebody that tends to spend a lot of time outdoors, you need to be able to effectively protect yourself from ticks. They are more than just a nuisance or a pest that makes us uncomfortable, they carry diseases, some of which are very dangerous and even deadly. The next time you’re out enjoying what the great outdoors has to offer, consider this simple trick and you can keep ticks from latching on and causing problems.

Lint roller and essential oil

In order to use this tip, you will need a roller and some essential oils. The lint roller should use adhesive layers. Take it with you when you’re going outside and roll it on your clothing every once in a while. You might be surprised with what you pick up in a very short amount of time.

Adding some essential oil may help to keep the ticks from climbing on you while you are outside. Spray the essential oil on your clothing and rub it into your skin and the ticks may just stay away. It also works for mosquitoes and black flies. It’s a good alternative to insect repellent and reduces your chemical exposure.

Here are 5 essential oils that repel bugs.

1. Lavender – This smells sweet to us but bugs absolutely hate it. It works on mosquitoes, flies and other insects.

2. PennyRoyal – this is a member of the mint family and it is toxic to insects.

3. Lemongrass – This essential oil comes from tropical lemongrass and has a citrusy sent. It is a natural flea and tick repellent and can be sprayed directly on the skin.

4. Eucalyptus – use this alone or along with citronella oil to keep bugs away. According to the Journal of medical entomology, Eucalyptus extract can reduce tick bites and infections.

5. Lemon – some lemon essential oil can work against fleas and other bugs. Slightly dilute it and spray it on your clothing and skin.

A knife can be worn under the arm with the use of paracord. The Para cord can be slung from one shoulder across chest and back to under arm of the opposite shoulder. It can be raised or lowered depending upon individual likes.